China’s growing space science ambitions

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of China's ambitions in space science and the U.S. response to it.

If the United States is indeed in a space race with China, why are we abandoning space science programs across the Solar System? This question, posed by guest Maxwell Zhu in a recent op-ed co-authored by The Planetary Society’s chief of space policy, reveals the current myopia around human spaceflight and the missing focus on a growing and ambitious new entrant into space science in the 21st century.

People in this episode

Guest: Maxwell Zhu

Topics covered

• space science
• China
• space race
• human spaceflight
• space policy

Keywords

• space race
• China
• space science
• human spaceflight
• The Planetary Society

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Planetary Society

Places: United States, Solar System

More episodes of Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition

• A proposal to stifle American science · June 5, 2026 · 52 min
• Why humans matter — The philosophy of Artemis II · May 1, 2026 · 1h 19m
• Return to Launch — Cape Canaveral's unlikely history · April 3, 2026 · 1h 13m
• Is there really a space race between the US and China? · March 6, 2026 · 1h 9m
• What a NASA Authorization bill actually does · February 6, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Change for the Sake of Disruption at NASA · January 2, 2026 · 1h 11m